October 04 Greenleaf Post

September has blown by for us. We've been very busy with school, sports, our callings, harvesting the garden and all of the fun stuff that comes with September. We feel very blessed that the kids are in such a wonderful school. The Charter School concept is really great and the way they are running this one is absolutely impressive. The kids are really learning and stretching and they are having FUN while doing it. They are all learning lots of vocabulary words like Hannah the other day mentioned that Jarom was very "intrepid" while playing football and that Logan has a "plethora of clothes" in her closet.

We were blessed with the opportunity to have Elder Scott from the Quorum of the 12 apostles come to reoranize our Stake here. That was a real treat to start of the month. We really gleaned a lot from him and his partner Elder Walker. They were really great.

Jarom has run for 5 touchdowns for the season and is loving football. This past Saturday we went up to a little town called Garden Valley and since they don't have enough at any one age group they can combine. Unfortunately they are supposed to roll up if they have over a certain percentage of older kids. Well, 90% of their kids were older and bigger then Jarom's team which is one of the smallest in his league. I'm the "trainer" on his team and it seemed as though every other play I was running out to help a kid off the field. Most of the injuries were minor like, getting the wind knocked out of them or bruises. Well, right before half time the Quarterback got injured and it looks as though it is a minor fracture so he could be out for the season. This is a real bummer since we had nobody who was ready to back him up. Jarom ended up playing QB for most of the rest of the game and they just had him run it. Afterwards the coaches mentioned that Jarom will likely be QB for the rest of the season so Jarom and I have been doing some practicing. Jarom is quite funny when he's taking the snap because he bends over to the side to look under the center to make sure he doesn't drop the snap. We've been working on that.

Logan's piano playing is getting really good. I can't believe that we have the hyms being played in the home. It is sooooo awesome! It almost makes Lareen and I cry sometimes when she is playing one. She has started reading the Work and the Glory and is already getting attached to the characters and wants to read all the time. It's a nice problem to have.

We watched Lareen's brother's child for the whole month of September while they went through some difficult times. She was in the Hospital and he was trying to find a new house for them so we took Luke who is the same age as Emma. It was nice that he didn't have to worry about Luke during the day while the other kids where at school. We just took him home this past Saturday to their new house with his Mom at home.

Lareen is working hard at learning all about the various things that have been affecting her health and contributing to her dizzyness. It appears as though we are making headway (get it... headway) anyway her head still spins at times but not so often and not so bad. Thank you for any and all prayers in her behalf.

BlueLine is doing really well and therefore I'm extremely busy. Everyday Lareen asks how my day was and I tell her I've been so busy and she reminds me how grateful we are that I'm so busy instead of wishing I had stuff to do.

Pictures from 2004 Reunion

August 04 Greenleaf Post

Dear Family and Friends,

Whew, time flies!!!! August came and went and it's well into September and I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the whole summer!!

The kids have been in school just over 2 weeks now. They are in portable buildings until the school gets built (sounds like it will be 2 years in the portables). Their teachers are fantastic and we are really feeling blessed that they could get into the charter school program. The main teachers only teach the basics like reading, writing and arithmatic but they get 1/2 hour of Spanish every day along with art, computers, science all from specialist teachers. It is really fun! Jarom is just struggling with the lack of playground area. They only have a small patch of grass for all the students.

Thank goodness for Football. If Jarom wasn't in Football I think we'd all go crazy. His first "real" game is this Saturday but he's been through nearly 4 weeks of practice and they have a jamboree at the BSU stadium where they play 6 minutes of offense and 6 minutes of defense against another team. Jarom plays running back (Y back) and scored the only touchdown!!! Lareen went balistic in the stands and I was pretty proud down on the field (I'm the trainer since I know a little first-aid). Anyway his team did really good and he LOVES football. He is quite good too, if I do say so myself. He's 15 pounds heavier then the average back and he is faster than anyone on his team. He really knows how to lower his shoulder and give a "crack" when he needs to as well.

The biggest news is that Hannah turned "8" and was baptized!!! It was really fun for her to have a big birthday bash with all of her friends. She had a beach party and they rode the horses and played in all of the sand we put around the stream in the back. They then, roasted hotdogs over the fire and we had a really fun time. The weather was perfect. That was in the middle of the month and just this last weekend we had the baptism. My parents came and so did the Griffin's from Logan. The Griffin's even brought the little kitty "Tuxedo" back to visit her siblings. It was a real pleasure and of course all of Lareen's family except for the twins were here for the big events as well.

One other highlight for the month was the opportunity to learn first hand from one of the Quorum of the 12. Elder Scott came to reorganize the Caldwell Stake. It was a real treat and our family is still at a higher spiritual level because of it. I just don't want to lose the feelings he gave us and left with us.

I've gotta run, thanks for all of your prayers in our behalf. Lareen is feeling some better - it appears as though she has a handle on some of her issues and will be back to her healthy best in no time.

March 04 Greenleaf Post

Dear Family and Friends,

Things are really moving now. We have the house officially on the market and we have a contract on a house in Maryland. Now we just need to sell our house here asap so that we can close on the house in Maryland by April 30th. Whew, it's been a bit busy.

Lareen and I were able to spend a few days in the DC area around her birthday. We found a great realtor and a nice area. The market out here moves really fast. If you want to buy a house you have to jump fast since it is a really strong sellers market. Most homes go through bidding wars. In fact the first house we put an offer on we didn't get. We lost out inspite of the fact that we offered substantially more than the asking price. It's really nuts out here. In the end we really got lucky and found a great house in a great area for a relatively good deal. We just hope that our house sells quickly so that we don't loose the deal.

I'm spending a lot of time away from home and we'd like to try to reunite again as soon as possible by getting my family out East with me. The kids and Lareen are all tired of me being gone so much. It isn't healthy to be apart so much.

I'm back in school. I'm enrolled in an MBA program focused on ebusiness through the University of Phoenix. It feels good to get going again.

June 03 Greenleaf Post

Here is a quick note to let you all know that we are alive and well - just extremely busy.

It was absolutely fantastic to have Mom come and visit. Thanks Mom it really was a joy and the kids had a great time with you! We hope that you can swing more trips with the Hathaways like that one.

I'm still busy with school, coaching Jarom's BaseBall team, Elder's Quorum and Work. Lareen and I have been "volunteered" to be the presidents of the PTO for this coming school year as well - no rest for the wicked.

Lareen has great things rolling for her YW camp this summer. It's a Ward level camp so she is 100% in charge and it should be a real great experience. She is very excited about it. She's planned 3 or 4 other camps and has never been able to attend due to pregnancies or moving so this will be her first time to attend a camp she has planned. I'm going to be up there with her as one of 2 Priesthood that need to be there at all times.

Logan is finishing up her SoftBall and that has been fun. She took 1st place in an essay contest for her school. She interviewed her Grandpa Hansen about the changes in Farming over the past 50 years. It was fun for her to interview him and write the paper. She has a real talent with creative writing.

Jarom is on my Coach-Pitch team and is doing FANTASTIC! I think that hard thing about being his coach is not gloating too much or being too hard on him. He is a great little baseball player (much better than I was at his age) and he outshines most of his team. The biggest struggle with baseball at this age is focus. I'm trying every trick in the book to keep them focused on the game so they're not daydreaming when the ball gets hit at them. But, Jarom is pretty good at staying focused. He loves to play the piano and has really improved over the past year.

Hannah is going to make us famous with her pies. Lareen just had a Father's day pie-making fundraiser for the YW. They made a bunch of pies but we also found a restaurant supply house for the majority (they sold more then they could possibly have made). Anyway, Hannah sat there with the YW and made a apple pie all by herself. It was (no kidding) one of the best pies I've ever had. The crust was perfect!!! (taste - not perfect in design ;-) Anyway, I've been kidding her that we will start a business and sell "Hannah's World Famous Pies". She thinks that's ok as long as she makes a lot of money - defined as at least one whole dollar per pie.

Emma is a lot like Jarom (enjoys attention and entertaining). So, we have another one. She is sooo funny. At the baseball or softball games, at the store or anywhere, she will go up to anyone and start up a conversation. She is not shy. At one of Logan's game's she found a nice lady sitting on a blanket from the other team and sat down with her and had a nice long conversation. The lady came up afterwards and just laughed with Lareen and I about Emma and her outgoing personality.

We hope that all of you are having a wonderful summer - we are working hard on getting things ready for next summer. We look forward to seeing you in Greenleaf in 2004! By the way I need to know which ones of you want me to check on renting an RV for you vs. how many are planning on using a tent. I'll get pricing on RV's for those who want that depending on how many it will need to sleep. I still plan on having same-age cousins sleep together in tents. We'll come up with as many tents as we can to cover that need.

Love to all!

January 03 Greenleaf Post

YIKES, I've had some real trouble with my Yahoo. I've tried to send this for two weeks and I've finally had to rebuild my address list to send this. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone.

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year!!!!! First of all, I appologize for not sending Christmas cards... I guess I figure that all of you have been keeping up with us through the monthly email and hey, email is free.

What a wonderful time of year. Christmas was really nice, it was great to have Christmas in a more permanant place. For the past few years we have had Christmas in homes we knew were temporary for us - like last year when we were renting a little place while we built. We are also grateful that we are not building our house this Christmas... well I guess that is not entirely true. We are going to be building on our house for many years to come. We had the goal to finish the bonus room for Christmas, but were sidetracked when our diesel truck broke down and needed a chunk of $$ that would have gone toward sheetrock. Oh well. It will be nice when it is done, but it's not an emergency. It will be nice so that when we have parties here (which is happening more often) we have a separate place to have kids play vs. underfoot.

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was a white Christmas... sort of. We had a dusting of snow that if you looked out early enough you could see in the shadows, but it was melted before noon. But hey, it snowed!

We have had a few medical situations during the school break also. On the 23rd Lareen's parents took all of Lareen's brothers, and sisters and the grandkids out to eat for our Christmas present. It was a lot of fun, but Hannah had her finger smashed in the big heavy door to the bathroom - on the hinge side! It was nasty! She was brave, but it really hurt. After Christmas we took her in to see if it was broken and a piece of the bone was broken off the tip of her finger and was floating. They had us come back to see a hand specialist and the specialist said other than missing a fingernail for a while she would be fine. Well that same day, Jarom and Hannah were sick, and broke out in SPOTS. Yep, it was Chicken Pox time for the Packers. Hannah and Jarom got it bad. Jarom even had a couple of Pox on his eyeball. They had them everywhere. I don't remember Logan's being so bad. Well we have a 2 week break and then we should be at it again with Emma. Lovely. The bright side is that they didn't miss much school since they start tommorrow and Jarom and Hannah should be ready by Tuesday.

Lareen is doing a bang up job in the Young Women's organization. Unfortunately their big winter snow party at the Bishop's cabin was cancelled the night before they were to leave. It's a long and sad story. Lots of very dissappointed Young Women.

We are working hard on getting the place ready for the reunion. We have been fevorishly moving dirt to get ready to plant grass again, on flat ground this time. We should have a lovely, big lawn by the summer of 2004

December 02 Greenleaf Post

Dear Family and Friends,

We just returned from Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls. It was fun to spend time with my parents and have a quiet Thanksgiving day. We hadn't been to Idaho Falls for a Thanksgiving for a number of years and it was really nice. The kids had a great time. They became addicted to Monopoly while they were there and my Mom and Dad were generous enough to send us home with the game as an early Christmas present. On our way home we asked the kids if they liked going to Grandma and Grandpa Packer's house and they all said that they can't wait to go back and that they had a great time. They liked Grandpa's Pancakes and the fact that we had desert after every meal!

The month of November flew past for us. Lareen is back in the Young Women's organization and is excited to whip it into shape. The young women and parent's of our ward were so excited when she was announced as the new President that Lareen was almost tackled at the end of the meeting by excited girls and parents. She will do a fantastic job... again.

The kids had a coloring contest at school and Logan and Jarom both won for their grade level. Hannah was a top contestant as well. It was kind of funny that both of them won - the teachers kept assuring us that the pictures were not labeled so there was no way for the judges to know that they were done by siblings. They all are doing great with Piano Lessons, School and Church.

Logan is preparing her Primary lesson again for this next week. She loves to teach her class and this is her 3rd opportunity. She also loves to prepare quality Family Night lessons and activities.

Jarom sang a solo for the Primary program and did a fantastic job. He has told us that he would like to be a "star" someday (referring to singing). He was also baptized at the beginning of November and it was a fantastic experience. We sang as a family and Jarom had a small solo in that presentation as well. He definitely does not mind being in the limelight.

Hannah's hair is growing, she is 110% girl who loves pink, barbies, dressing-up and laughing. She is not a big fan of the limelight and has a bit of stage fright. She cannot believe that Jarom is brave enough to sing in front of everyone. She is doing very well in the 1st grade and has Jarom's old teacher. She still loves to climb on the counter and help Mom cook.

Emma is really talking now. She has quite a personality. She feels left out every morning when the other 3 get on the bus to go to school and she wants to go too. She gets to visit regularly when Lareen goes to volunteer. Everyone at the school knows her and she puts on the "cute show" very well. I don't remember our other kids playing their "cute" card so often or so well. She is cute, she knows it, and she uses it to get attention from everyone around and does it with such an air of innocense that most others don't realize that they are being played - YIKES!

Otherwise all is well at the Packer place. We are working on finishing the Bonus Room a little at a time. I've finished wiring it and I'm almost done insulating it. It should be in great working order by the time we have the reunion. We also have spent the last couple of weekends getting the yard and pasture ready for next year's planting (re-planting for the yard) of grass. We didn't get things as level as we wanted so we tore up everything and we are living in a dust field for a while. Fortunately a friend from church brought over his road grader and we have everything pretty much leveled and sloped just like we want. Now we just need to get the sprinkler system in next spring and get the grass growing in nicely for the following summer.

We are happy and healthy and plan to have a fantastic holiday season in our new home.